Halfback is the most important position in the NRL. I don't think anyone can dispute that statement.

We saw how drastically the Sharks' performances improved with the arrival of a class halfback. Meanwhile, those sides struggling to find a star number seven very rarely play finals footy.

Luckily for fans, there seems to be a plethora of talented number sevens in the game right now. Ranking them was very, very difficult and I'm sure will be met with nothing but positivity in the comments.

As with other lists, this is based purely on 2022. It's not necessarily the best players in this position overall.

To qualify a player must have played halfback more often than not. There will be one technical exception as we saw with the five-eights.

5. Jahrome Hughes

The Storm superstar is often underappreciated due to being surrounded by names like Munster, Papenhuyzen and Grant but his 2022 was incredible.

12 tries, 12 try assists, 10 line break assists, almost 100 run metres per game and 250 kick metres per game makes for good reading.

Those stats look even better when you consider how disjointed the Storm outfit was in 2022 due to a horror injury toll. He lost his halves partner on multiple occasions.

Hughes being ranked at five may draw some ire in the comments but looking back his highlights suggest he probably could be even higher.